Question Regarding Bass Behavior

[Brad70]

There is a quarry pond less than 5 minutes away from home that's a little bigger than an acre. It is deep and very very clear. It doesn't get fished much and has what appears to be a significant population of decent sized bass. Anyway, today I stopped by for a bit and I noticed some unique to me behavior. The first bass I hooked into was following by another bass closely. Every turn and change in direction had this bass shadowing the one hooked. I had never seen this before. The next fish was the best fish of the trip and was a bit over 3lbs. I counted 4 other bass (all much larger) that had the same behavior and followed this fish every which way untill I landed it. I was trying to make sense of this but wasn't quite sure. I have noticed the bass in this pond always tend to travel in groups. Anyone care to explain?

[Avalonjohn44]

I have seen it before, and I think it is related to schooling behavior and competition for food. The bass concentrate in a particular area on structure and compete for anything that swims by. Sometimes that means multiple bass folling a hooked fish hoping for a morsel or several fish following one bait. I see it mostly on fishing shows, not in real life as the water I fish is pretty stained.

[brushhoggin]

avalons right. i saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago. the fish thinks that the bass you're reeling in is chasing baitfish.

[Bass_Fanatic]

Try this...

Bring a buddy, let him hook into a bass and when the bigger fish are following, you cast in there and catch em. They will hit just about anything if they are following a hooked fish. Last month my buddy hooked a 12" fish and had a 4lber following. Before I could even cast at the bigger fish, it took the bait from the 12"er and he caught the 4lber. Pretty neat to watch.

[Shad_Master]

I have seen the same thing happen with blue gill and bass. There is a lake near me that has an overpopulation of blue gill. When throwing a soft plastic bait, it is common for there to be a lot of BG bites - but if you see your line moving off w/o feeling a strike, just wait and if you see it change directions, set the hook and you will usually have a bass on the line. They are competing for the forage and are forced to school up together.

[Nitrofreak]

The private ponds and small areas that have an over abundunce of fish will make the fish more aggressive when there is a lack of food.

So when you hook one, another will be there to catch any part of the bait that gets left behind, it's pretty cool to watch I totally agree!!!

One of my friends and I were fishing a clear water area much like yours and I watched as he brought his fish in and when the fish he had on his line came up out of the water so did two others it was like watching syncronised swimming lol.

[NBR]

It happens often especially with smallies. Rule on my boat if I have a fish on cast right in behind my fish. If you have a fish on I'm going to sat right in behind your fish. We get many doubles this way.

[200racing]

make a carolina rig using a johnson spoon as your weight. good chance of doubling down.

[Nick]

This following behavior is very common. You are seeing it mainly for three reasons. First, the water is clear. Second, you have a good population of bass in this pit. Third, the other fish in the school instictively follow one another on their schooling tendencies esp. when they know no association of fear to do it. These followers will diminish over time if you continue to fish this water. You'll also note that catching bass will become a little bit tougher as they "wise up" to your offerings.